Folding bow for vehicle-tops.



Y J. H. BRIGHT. FOLDING BOW FOR VEHICLE TOPS.

APPLICATION FILED 110129, 1913. v I

1,101,903. Patented June 30,1914,

2 SHEETSSHEET 1.

UNITED sTATEs PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES H. BRIGHT, OF HOUSTON, TEXAS.

FOLDING BOW r03 vEHIoLE-Tors.

ToaZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES H. BRIGHT, citizen of the United States,residing at Houston, in the county of Harris and State of Texas, haveinvented certain new and useful'lmprovements in Folding Bows forVehicle-Tops, of which the following is a specification, reference beingbad to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to vehicle tops .of that character wherein aplurality of bows are provided upon which a suitable cover ispermanently or removably secured, and the invention has for itsprincipal object to provide a device of this character wherein the bowsmay be compactly folded so that the same can be carried in acomparatively restricted space upon the body of the vehicle.

In its more specific aspect, the invention embodies improved means forremovably mounting the top upon the body of the vehicle, said topincluding a pair of bows having common supporting pivots mounted uponthe vehicle body, and a third bow pivotally and adjustably mounted atits extremities upon one of the'first named bows, and constituting atensioning member whereby the cover. is maintained in a taut orstretched condition.

My invention has for a further object to constructions; combinations andarrange-,

ments of the parts that I shall hereinafter fully describe and claim. I

For a full understanding of the invention, reference is to be had to thefollowing description and accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is aside elevation showing my improved top mounted upon the body of a motorvehicle, and illustrating one arrangement of the bows Fig. 2 is a frontelevation, the bows being partly folded; Fig. 3 is a section taken onthe line 33 of Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 2, the bowsbeing completely folded; Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 1 illustratinga different arrangement of the bows.

Referring in detail to the drawings, 5

Specification of Letters Patent. Patgnted June 30,1914,

Application filed November 29, 1913.

Serial No. 803,837.

designates the seat of a vehicle bodyup'on each side of which a bracketarm 6 is mounted.- This bracket arm at one endeterminates suitableclamping nuts 9 being threaded upon the lower ends of said bolts. Thebolts 8 at their upper ends are provided with annular shoulders '10which rest upon the sleeves 7 My improved vehicle'top includes a framestructure'which consists of the bows 11 and 12, each of said bowsembodying s ide arms 13, and an intermediate section 14; to the curvedends 15 of which said side arms are pivotally connected as indicated at16. It will be noted that the bow 11 is slightly larger than the bow 12so that when said bows are disposed in the same plane, as shown in Fig.2, the bow 11 will be disposed outwardly of and in spaced relation tothe bow 12. Each of the bow sections is preferably constructed of atubular metal rod, though of course, it will be understood that thepresent invention is not limited 'in'this respect. The ends of the armsor sections .13. of the bow 11 are oifset as at 17. Be-

tween these oflset ends of the bow 11 and the corresponding ends of thebow l2,the upper reduced end 8 of the supporting bolts 8 are disposed.Pins 18 are arranged in the ends of the bow arms and loosely mounted inopenings provided in the reduced ends of the supporting bolts.

In addition to the main bows 11 and12, I also provide a supplementary oradditional bow 19, which is of similar construction to the otherbows-above described. Theside arms or sections 20 of this latter bow arepivotally mounted as at 21 upon the sleeves 22 which are slidablyengaged upon the side arms 13 of the bow 11. These sleeves carry setscrews 23 for binding engagement with the arms 13 whereby the sleevesmaybe se-v cured in their adjusted positions.

Attention is now directed to Fig. 1 of the drawings wherein I haveillustrated one arrangement of the bows whereby a forwardly projectinghood is produced extending in advance of the vehicle seat. In thisdisposition of the hows, the bow 11 is disposed in substantiallyperpendicular position while the smaller bow 12 is inclined rearwardlyfromthe common supporting bolts S of said bows. After properly adjustingthe supplemental bow 19, the same is turned forwardly to an inclinedposition with relation to the perpendicular bow 11. A cover 2 1 isprefate sections of the several bows by means of the desired distance.

thereof are very compactly folded.

straps or other suitable fastenings. It will of course be apparent thatas the larger bow 11 is arranged centrally between the bows 12 and 19,the central portion of the cover will be disposed at a'higher elevationthan the end portions thereof. Suitable straps are attached at one oftheir ends to the intermediate or central section of the rear- *ardlyextending how 12 and have their lower ends removably fastened in any preferred manner to the rear upper edge of the seat 5 of the vehicle.Similar straps 26 are also connected to the ends of the central sectionof the bow 19 and are adapted to be attached to the body of the vehiclein any preferred manner at their opposite ends. Suitable side curtainsmay also be permanently or removably attached to the edges of the cover2 1- and fastened to the seat body at their lower ends in the ordinaryway.

In Fig. 5 of the drawings, I have illustrated another arrangement of thetop bows which produce a rounding or curved top overthe seat. It will benoted that in this instance, the large bow 11 extends forwardly from thesupporting bolts 8 while the smaller bow 12 extends rearwardlytherefrom. The additional bow 19 now occupies a centralperpendicularposition and is adapted to be adjusted upon the arms of the bow 11 so asto raise or elevate the central. part of the cover to any desiredheight,

so that the are described by the cover may be varied asdesired to causethe cover to extend forwardly over the vehicle seat for It willv thus beseen that the arrangement of the top bows may be very easily and quicklyadjusted so as to dispose the top in such manner that it will notinterfere with the easy entrance to or descent from the vehicle seat,while at the same time ample protection will be afforded thereby. Whenit is not desired to use the vehicle top, the cover may be removed fromthe frame bows and the side curtains folded up inside of the body of thecover and said cover compactly folded and stored away.

T he manner of folding the frame bows will be clearly seen fromreference to Figs. 2,

and t of the drawings. The several bows are first moved toward eachother so that they are disposed in contiguous relation as clearly shownin Fig. 2, and the side arms of these bows are then moved inwardlytoward and upon each other, the sleeves 21 sliding freely upon the armsof the how 11. "thus, as shown in Fig. 4:, the arms of the several bowsand the intermediate sections It is of course, understood that beforethe folding of the side arms, the supporting bolts 8 have been removedfrom the sleeves 7 of the bracket members 6. These folded bows togetherwith the cover may be bound together by means of the straps 25 and 26,and the entire top thus very compactly aranged so that it can be securedupon the running board of the vehicle or other comparatively restrictedspace in the body thereof. i

From the foregoing, it is thought that the construction, manner ofoperation and several advantages of my invention will be fullyunderstood. The vehicle top may be very easily and quickly arranged uponthe body of the vehicle or removed therefrom when its, use is notdesired, by simply ren oylng the nuts 9 from the lower ends of thesupporting bolts 8 and lifting said bolts from the sleeves of thebearing brackets (3. It will of course, be appreciated that my invention may be applied to the various forms of motor vehicles now ingeneral use and the cover thereof may be of greater length than shown inthe drawing, and additional supporting bows provided therefor.

In addition to the arrangements of the bows shown in Figs. 1 and 5 ofthe drawings, when the device is to be applied to a five or sevenpassenger automobile, extra bows are provided. shown in Fig. 1 of thedrawings are employed and a bow of the same construction is alsoremovably mounted upon the forward vehicle seat. Another bow is arrangedupon the top ofthe hood or dash of the vehicle, these additional bowssupporting the forwardly extending portion of the top or cover as willbe readily understood. It will also be apparent that varione otherarrangements of the bows may be resorted to.

It will further be understood that many changes may be made in-the form,proportion and construction of the several elements employed, as may benecessary to adapt the device to use upon various constructions ofvehicles, and it therefore reserve the right to resort to all suchlegiti- 'mate changes as may be fairly embodied within the spiritandscope of the invention as claimed.

Havingthus described the invention, what is claimed is:

1. A vehicle top comprising a pair of bows of relatively differentsizes, each of said bows consisting of an intermediate section and sidearms pivotally connected to the ends of said intermediate section,support ing bolts upon which the corresponding bow arms are pivotallymounted, one of said bows being adapted to fold within the other, andthe side. arms of the bows being foldable inwardly upon saidintermediate sections.

2. A vehlcle top comprising a pa r of The bows 1.1 and 12 as 9 bows ofrelatively different sizes, each of said bows consisting of anintermediate sec tion and side arms pivoted at one of their ends to theends of the intermediate section, common supporting bolts upon which theother ends of the corresponding arms of said bows are pivotally mounted,one of said bows being foldable within the other and the side arms ofthe outer bow being shorter than the arms of the inner bow, whereby whenthe side arms are folded inwardly upon the intermediate bow sections,said intermediate sections are moved toward each other and closelyarranged with respect to said side arms.

- 3. A vehicle top comprising a pair of bows of relatively differentsizes, each of said bows consisting of an intermediate section havingits extremities angularly disposed and side arms pivotally connected tothe angular ends of said intermediate section, bolts upon which thecorresponding bow arms are pivotally mounted, one of said bows beingadapted to fold within the other, the angular ends of the intermediatesection of the larger bow being of greater length than the angular endsof the intermediate section of the smaller bow and the pivots connectingthe ends of said intermediate sections to the side arms being disposedin diii'erent vertical and horizontal planes, whereby, when the sidearms are folded inwardly upon the intermediate sections, said sectionsare moved toward each other into compact relation with the side arms.

4. A vehicle top comprising a pair of bows of relatively differentsizes, each of said bows consisting of an intermediate section and sidearms pivotally connected to the ends of said section, the side arms ofthe outer bow being shorter than those of the inner bow, supportingbolts upon which the corresponding bow arms are pivotally mounted, andan additional bow also consisting of an intermediate section and theside arms pivotally connected thereto, and means for slidably andadjustably mounting the armsof said latter bow upon the side arms of thelarger bow of said pair of bows, whereby all of the side arms may befolded inwardly upon the intermediate sections and said intermediatesections compactly arranged with respect to each other and with respectto said side arms.

In testimony whereof I hereunto affix my signature in the presence oftwo witnesses.

JAMES H. BRIGHT.

Witnesses:

ALTA Gr. KNAPP, C. E. OXFORD.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. 0.

